Wealthy Societies Research Articles

What Determines the Crime Rate? A Macroeconomic Case Study

This study examines the relationship between economic indicators and crime rates in six European countries: Lithuania, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Finland and Sweden. By examining macroeconomic factors such as GDP, security spending and per capita consumption, the study aims to understand how these variables affect crime dynamics. Using robust econometric techniques, including panel regression with fixed effects, the study identifies significant correlations and patterns. The findings reveal that the crime rate has a high degree of inertia and is significantly influenced by the previous level. Contrary to expectations, increased per capita consumption is associated with higher crime rates, which may indicate that wealthier societies are experiencing an increase in economic crime. Furthermore, higher spending on security does not necessarily reduce crime, suggesting that types of crime evolve as detection capabilities improve. This study highlights the complexity of the nexus between crime and the economy, highlighting the need for multifaceted, long-term policies to effectively combat crime and increase public safety. The results offer valuable insights for policymakers to develop comprehensive crime prevention and economic development strategies.

Faltering mortality improvements at young-middle ages in high-income English-speaking countries.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, stagnating life expectancy trends were reported in some high-income countries (HICs). Despite previous evidence from country-specific studies, there is a lack of comparative research that provides a broader perspective and challenges existing assumptions. This study aims to examine longevity trends and patterns in six English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States) by combining period and cohort perspectives and to compare them with other HICs. Using data from the Human Mortality and World Health Organization Mortality Databases, we estimated partial life expectancy, lifespan inequality and cohort survival differences for 1970-2021, as well as the contribution of causes of death to the gap in life expectancy between English-speaking countries and the average for other HICs in 2017-19. In the pre-pandemic period, the increase in life expectancy slowed in all English-speaking countries, except Ireland, mainly due to stagnating or rising mortality at young-middle ages. Relative to other HICs, those born in Anglophone countries since the 1970s experienced relative survival disadvantage, largely attributable to injuries (mainly suicides) and substance-related mortality (mainly poisonings). In contrast, older cohorts enjoyed advantages for females in Australia and Canada and for males in all English-speaking countries except the United States. Although future gains in life expectancy in wealthy societies will increasingly depend on reducing mortality at older ages, adverse health trends at younger ages are a cause for concern. This emerging and avoidable threat to health equity in English-speaking countries should be the focus of further research and policy action.

Labour migration as a solution to an ageing population?

Labour migration is often mentioned as a way to mitigate the impact of ageing in wealthy societies. This article analyses the impact of labour migration on the welfare level and old-age dependency ratio of a prosperous ageing country, the Netherlands. If labour migrants are considered to be part of the population of the host country, they only contribute to a higher welfare level if their productivity is higher than per capita GDP. If they stay permanently and form a family, their productivity will need to be higher than the average labour productivity of the incumbent workforce. Labour migrants will mitigate the rise of the old-age dependency ratio, but only if they only stay in the host country temporarily. Therefore, only selective and temporary labour migration will relieve the ‘burden’ of an ageing society.

The wealth of nations matters: A cross-national analysis of how political orientation and household income affect attitudes toward environmental protection

The article investigates normative preferences for environmental protection over economic growth registered in 74 countries—based on the European Values Study and the World Value Survey (2017–2022). We employ multi-level logistic regression to demonstrate that Gross Domestic Product per capita moderates the effects of political orientation and household income, both of which tend to be stronger in wealthier countries. Only in wealthy societies are left-leaning and affluent individuals far more likely to prefer environmental protection. Not accounting for moderation leads to underestimating the propensity for political polarization over environmental questions. Hence, our study suggests that large-scale implementation of growth-impeding or wealth-sacrificing environmental policies could face insurmountable public opposition in wealthy societies. Furthermore, failing to account for the moderation by GDP per capita in cross-national studies of environmental attitudes may constitute a confounding factor by aggregating wealthier countries, where the effects of political orientation and household income prove substantial, with the poorer ones, where they appear negligible.

High life satisfaction reported among small-scale societies with low incomes

Global polls have shown that people in high-income countries generally report being more satisfied with their lives than people in low-income countries. The persistence of this correlation, and its similarity to correlations between income and life satisfaction within countries, could lead to the impression that high levels of life satisfaction can only be achieved in wealthy societies. However, global polls have typically overlooked small-scale, nonindustrialized societies, which can provide an alternative test of the consistency of this relationship. Here, we present results from a survey of 2,966 members of Indigenous Peoples and local communities among 19 globally distributed sites. We find that high average levels of life satisfaction, comparable to those of wealthy countries, are reported for numerous populations that have very low monetary incomes. Our results are consistent with the notion that human societies can support very satisfying lives for their members without necessarily requiring high degrees of monetary wealth.

Behaviour regulation and the role of mental health in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Background and aimsNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most common cause of chronic liver disease in wealthy societies, and is responsible for a significant rise in liver morbidity and mortality. Current treatments prioritise lifestyle interventions, predominantly diet and exercise management, but patients frequently fail to make the necessary behavioural adjustments. The current study seeks to identify those factors which influence patients’ behaviour with respect to adherence to treatment regimes.MethodsNovel areas of interest were investigated; locus of control, behavioural regulation and a range of mental health measures, due to their links to either poor lifestyle choices or abnormal eating as identified in previous literature. Data was gathered using self-report questionnaires, from 96 participants, who were split into three groups, NAFLD patients, non-NAFLD liver disease patients and healthy controlsResultsData was analysed using a MANOVA, and followed up with a Tukey post-hoc test. Three factors were found to be significant by group; cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and SAPAS score (a measure of personality disorders). An association between personality disorders and NAFLD was identified.ConclusionIt is suggested that NAFLD patients are screened for personality disorders and, if identified, treated prior to the commencement of diet and exercise management.

The old friends hypothesis: evolution, immunoregulation and essential microbial inputs.

In wealthy urbanised societies there have been striking increases in chronic inflammatory disorders such as allergies, autoimmunity and inflammatory bowel diseases. There has also been an increase in the prevalence of individuals with systemically raised levels of inflammatory biomarkers correlating with increased risk of metabolic, cardiovascular and psychiatric problems. These changing disease patterns indicate a broad failure of the mechanisms that should stop the immune system from attacking harmless allergens, components of self or gut contents, and that should terminate inappropriate inflammation. The Old Friends Hypothesis postulates that this broad failure of immunoregulation is due to inadequate exposures to the microorganisms that drive development of the immune system, and drive the expansion of components such as regulatory T cells (Treg) that mediate immunoregulatory mechanisms. An evolutionary approach helps us to identify the organisms on which we are in a state of evolved dependence for this function (Old Friends). The bottom line is that most of the organisms that drive the regulatory arm of the immune system come from our mothers and family and from the natural environment (including animals) and many of these organisms are symbiotic components of a healthy microbiota. Lifestyle changes that are interrupting our exposure to these organisms can now be identified, and many are closely associated with low socioeconomic status (SES) in wealthy countries. These insights will facilitate the development of education, diets and urban planning that can correct the immunoregulatory deficit, while simultaneously reducing other contributory factors such as epithelial damage.

The Color Line by Igiaba Scego

Reviewed by: The Color Line by Igiaba Scego Adele Newson-Horst IGIABA SCEGO The Color Line Trans. John Cullen & Gregory Conti. New York. Other Press. 2022. 544 pages. IGIABA SCEGO'S third novel, The Color Line, is a multilayered adventure. It features two women, more than a century apart, who encounter many of the same struggles despite societal progress. The adventure rests with movement—undertaking a journey—while the effort to occupy space freely is the struggle. The work is nothing less than brilliant. It has everything: a compelling story, a historical lesson, a love story, and an urgent message. Lafanu Brown is a half-Chippewa, half-Haitian artist living in antebellum America. She is discovered by a wealthy society woman who seeks to impress upon the world her magnanimous nature concerning the Negro. From that point forward, Lafanu becomes dependent upon the patronage of white women. She sees Italy as the mecca for artists. The story begins in Rome in 1887, a period historically known as the Scramble for Africa. A newly unified Italy has decided that it would like to "go and win the fatherland a place in the sun," so it embarks upon East Africa. Lafanu at this point is forty-five years old and living as a portrait artist in Italy. The expatriate American is attacked in the Piazza Colonna after word reaches citizens that Italian troops have been massacred in East Africa. In addition to a prologue and an epilogue, the twenty-one sections are designated significantly as "Crossings." Apart from being a compelling read, there is much to unpack in this work. Under the rubric Crossings I, the narrative shifts to the first-person point of view of Leila, a young African (Somali) Italian woman. Her family migrated to Italy to flee the dictatorship. Leila is an art [End Page 77] curator who works to restore Lafanu Brown to her rightful place in history. By turns, Leila conflates the struggles of Lafanu with those of her cousin Bini, who seeks to escape a lawless Mogadishu in the present time. Both Lafanu and Binti are assaulted viciously for the space they chose to occupy, both suffered serious trauma, and both used art as therapy to aid recovery. So the story shifts from the late nineteenth century to the present by turns to tell the story of recovery. This book features a host of memorable characters, including a lustful Frederick Douglass-like character, a lesbian dolente, and nineteenth-century eccentric women. It examines color consciousness in the larger European society. The British characters do not see Italians as Europeans, and Italians see themselves as superior to Africans. Scots and Irish servants are on the bottom of the white socioeconomic scale. The preoccupation with color as a civilizing agent is exhaustive. Above all this is an immigration story—a story of African migration. Binti writes in a letter to Leila, "I'd like to have a world where we Africans have the chance to move around." Restricted by laws, Africans are unable to travel the world like their counterparts in European countries. As for the characters who are successful in their crossings, Bim Adewunmi's assertion is relevant here: "All immigrants live a variation of the biblical act made famous by Lot's wife: They always look back." Adele Newson-Horst Morgan State University Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

“THE PATHWAYS OF HOMO SAPIENS” (THE REGIONAL MUSEUM PLJEVLJA): 3D DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND IMPROVISED SOLUTIONS IN THE MODERNIZATION OF A MUSEUM EXHIBITION

Life in an era of accelerated technological progress has opened up numerous opportunities for the improvement and modernization of museum activity, so museums all over the world have made significant investments in designing and creating experiences that strive to meet the expectations of modern visitors. Because the use of three-dimensional digital technologies in everyday museum work is at the heart of the exhibition “The Pathways of Homo sapiens”, this case study diachronically follows the process of incorporating individual technological solutions into the Regional Museum Pljevlja’s research, documentation, and pedagogical-didactic activities. The exhibition’s core concept was to maintain the conventional structure in which the exhibited artefacts will be the central aspects of the exhibition, while also achieving a new educational and entertaining perspective by arranging the exhibits in a more appealing atmosphere. The study is instructive because it demonstrates that the process of providing appealing educational and entertainment content is not always associated with big material resources, nor is it limited to larger museums and wealthier societies. A special emphasis is placed on the most significant moments in the museum’s work that enabled the use of three-dimensional digital technologies in everyday professional activities, as well as the application of these technologies to achieve desired design and aesthetic effects in an improvised manner. ##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.details##

To the cultural turn and back again: the relevance of aesthetics to the possibility of sustainable futures

The sociology of consumption has had a fraught relationship with aesthetics, with varying levels of interest in the concept throughout the history of the discipline. Today, aesthetics is barely mentioned at all and is not considered to be relevant to enabling transitions towards more sustainable futures. In this article I demonstrate how this is due both to the prevalent understanding of aesthetics in sociology – anchored in Kantian discourse on art – and the unwitting consequences of the disciplinary developments which have taken place following the cultural turn. Drawing from philosophy and anthropology, I then present two different understandings of aesthetics, inspired by Aristotle and Dewey, which provide more fruitful avenues for engaging with the concept. The article presents existing work taking these definitions forward and shows how reconceptualising aesthetics enables us both to grasp the specificities of the unsustainable patterns of consumption of the wealthy and unequal societies of Europe, North America and Australasia, and envision the possibility of a societal transformation beyond the consumer aesthetics of ‘the Capitalocene’. Decoupling aesthetics from art, I argue for the importance of defamiliarisation and aesthetic revisioning in the creation of fairer, more sustainable and better futures.

Features of the organization of distance learning in the process of training specialists in administration and public administration (Polish experience)

The article reflects the peculiarities of distance learning organization in the process of training specialists in administration and public administration on the example of the Polish experience. The methods of providing distance education, the challenges faced by specialists in higher education, and the advantages of such training of managers are considered. The presented article contains a review of the literature concerning distance learning in administration and public administration published in the last five years. According to the results of the processing of 45 articles presented in scientometric databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Index Copernicus), the trend of comparative analysis of distance and traditional educational models is typical. Research studies mainly focus on specific technologies and the degree of their effectiveness, the number of publications with the study of competencies has been growing only in the last two years. In addition, the predominant method is the analysis of quantitative data on students' academic performance and the adoption of the latest technologies by educators. Accordingly, the novelty of the study lies in highlighting the limitations of the discourse in the problem field: the focus on WEIRD sampling (respondents from Western, educated, industrialized, wealthy, and democratic societies), the lack of a meaningful conceptual framework for competency and self-efficacy research, the lack of qualitative data specific to a particular industry. Therefore, the purpose of the presented work is to determine the elements necessary for the professional development of future managers in a distance learning environment and the degree of their implementation. In the course of the empirical study, the subjective perception of the quality of education in the conditions of distance learning and the compliance of qualifications obtained by students with the requirements of the professional environment in the field of management were analyzed. The research methodology is embodied by exploratory design, which is based on surveys of participants in the educational process and semi-structured interviews of specialists in the field of public administration. The results allowed drawing conclusions about the sufficient level of skills in the digital environment and the sense of satisfaction with the educational process among students and teachers. The main indicator of academic achievement was determined by the content of the curricula, which corresponded to the current trends of professional activity. In addition, in the distance mode, one of the important components of learning efficiency is the interpersonal contact between the teacher and the student, guaranteeing the experience of the content and quality of the educational process.

Epic Futurity: The Phaeacians, Carthage, and the Tradition

AbstractContrary to the views of Hegelian critics, epic from its Homeric beginnings has projected a future time and future readers beyond its narrative frame. The genre does not close itself off in a heroic past. The episode of the Phaeacian banquet in the Odyssey places a utopian, technologically advanced and wealthy mercantile society side by side with its heroic world. The Phaeacians who listen to Odysseus’s wanderings and tales of Troy at their banquet figure a future, nonheroic audience for the poem itself. Subsequent imitations of this episode in major epics—the Aeneid, Orlando furioso, Os Lusíadas, Gerusalemme liberata, The Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost—measure a modern, critical distance, fed by science and a commercial economy, upon epic and its heroic values. The genre contains a historical dialectic of past and present from its outset.

Main modulators of COVID-19 epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is responsible for an important global death toll from which sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) seems mostly protected. The reasons explaining this situation are still poorly understood. MethodsWe analyzed the correlation between reported COVID-19 data between February 14, 2020 and May 18, 2021, and demographic, socioeconomic, climatic, diagnostic data, and comorbidities in 47 SSA countries. Different databases including the WHO data center, Our World in Data, and the World Bank were used. FindingsAs of May 17, 2021, SSA reported 2% of COVID-19 cases and 2.9% of deaths, with the southern region being the most affected with 56.4% of cases and 75.0% of deaths. COVID-19 mortality was positively correlated with medical variables (national obesity rate, diabetes prevalence, cancer incidence, and cardiovascular disease mortality rate), socioeconomic characteristics (international tourism, per capita health expenditure, human development index, HDI, and years of schooling), and health system variables (nurse density, number of COVID-19 tests per capita), but negatively correlated with the population under 15 years of age and the malaria index. InterpretationOur study suggests that higher economic status fits with high COVID-19 mortality in SSA. In this regard, it represents primarily a disease of modern and wealthy societies, and can therefore be considered as an exception among infectious diseases that historically affected more severely underserved populations living in low- and middle-income countries. However, it should be made clear that observed correlations do not imply inevitably causation and that additional studies are necessary to confirm our observations.

National wealth, individualism, generalised trust, and religiosity as moderators of the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction in 137 societies.

We predicted that the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction would depend partially on the wealth of the country in which one lives. We argue that wealthy societies provide a wide range of welfare provisions for assisting their citizens. By contrast, people living in poorer countries with associated lower individualism, lower generalised trust, and higher religiosity have fewer financial and institutional supports for their daily welfare. They thus receive greater personal and interpersonal rewards for helping strangers in their societies and experience greater life satisfaction. Using a 137-country sample, we found that the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction was weaker in wealthier nations and in nations with more individualistic, more trusting, but less religious citizens. When all four moderators were used, only trust and religiosity remained significant moderators. In a supplementary mediated moderation model, we also found that trust and religiosity mediated the effect of national wealth on the relationship between kindness and life satisfaction. We conclude that the relationship between kindness and life satisfaction depends on various aspects of national culture that may reduce or increase people's dependence in their daily lives on the help of others as opposed to dependence on welfare institutions.

Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Sports Parks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Taking Sports Parks in Beijing as Examples

China fully built a wealthy society but faced a serious COVID-19 epidemic together with the rest of the world. The emergence of the epidemic highlights the importance of sports parks for physical activity. By reviewing national fitness policies and identifying several types of sports parks, this paper investigates urban dwellers’ usage and preferences in sports parks by means of a questionnaire, with behavioural observation and interviews as complementary research methods. Taking the Beijing Olympic Forest Park, Sun Park, and Huilongguan Park as examples, this study reveals that participants present a high overall satisfaction with the sports parks. The factor analysis indicates that Sports Facilities and Maintenance & Management are the first and second most significant factors influencing residents’ willingness to use sports parks. This research can guide the planning and construction of sports park in the future.

Past, Present, and Intended Digitalization around the World: Leading, Catching up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind

Abstract Businesses around the world are rapidly adopting digital technologies. Adoption, though, is not even, but it varies over time and differs from society to society, depending on resources in the ecosystem. This study addresses how past, present, and future digitalization is developing globally and, in each society, depending on its resources. A survey of businesses in 47 countries, conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2021, provides national-level measures of digital technology adoption before and during the pandemic and the intention for adoption in the near future. Adoption of digital technology is found to vary significantly across both time and place. Before the pandemic, adoption was concentrated in the wealthiest societies. The pandemic was an external enabler, pushing less digitalized societies to catch up, independent of national economies, thus entailing some convergence. The early pandemic has been followed by intentions to digitalize, which differ widely, entailing some divergence. Intentions are strong in some societies that are forging ahead, but they are weaker in some less-digitalized and low-income societies that may be falling behind. The findings contribute to understanding digitalization as a global phenomenon and the pandemic as an external enabler that has promoted catching up and convergence in digitalization. Still, recovery is uneven and entailing divergence, as some societies are forging ahead while others are falling behind.

THE INJUSTICE OF UNDER-POLICING IN AMERICA

THE INJUSTICE OF UNDER-POLICING IN AMERICA

Global social transformations in the context of demographic change and urbanization

The article, from the standpoint of sociological analysis, examines fundamental changes in the structure of society, the distribution of resources that go beyond the framework of constant processes. Global social transformations reflect deeper forms of change at the level of value systems and power structures. The author of the article considers the most noticeable forms of changes at the level of social roles, institutions, status hierarchies, reflecting deep changes. The article deals with the term “transformation” from the standpoint of a deep, fundamental process of structural changes, fundamentally different from the previous one. New changes in the global social reality are taking place under the influence of the coronavirus pandemic, challenges and threats that have penetrated into all spheres of human life. An analysis is made of the “stopping” of the diverse global world, which had been changing so rapidly and it was impossible to imagine that all countries, regardless of the level of development, disagreements, struggle, would be absorbed by only one thing – obscurity, alienation, closeness. Questions are raised, world politics has changed due to the processes that fill its content, but how has it changed at the conceptual level, have modern transformations had a profound impact on the structure and geographical distribution of the population? If the growth of the role of nation-states is claimed, then how has the role of supranational institutions been transformed? What place does urbanization occupy in the processes of demographic changes associated with modern transformations? Is it fair to say that the urbanization of rural space is challenging conventional wisdom about what “rural” really means and what is still “rural” in many non-urban areas in wealthy societies?

Religious Exclusivism and Mass Beliefs about the Religion v. Science Debate: A Cross-National Study

When religion and science are in conflict, who supports religion? Using data from 71 diverse societies in the World Values Survey (n = 120,728), this study assesses the relative predictive strength of science optimism, moral concerns about science, religiosity, and religious exclusivism. Perhaps counterintuitively, science beliefs (science optimism, in particular) are weak predictors of the outcome, even in wealthy societies with high levels of scientific productivity. In contrast, believing that only one’s religion is acceptable is the strongest predictor of choosing religion over science; this is generally consistent across religious groups, regions, and specific countries/territories. These findings suggest that making the public more aware of major scientific advances will not, by itself, increase the cultural authority of science—especially if it is explicitly contested by another influential social institution. The implications for social scientific theories of modernization and secularization are discussed.

WEALTH TAX MODIFICATIONS: STATUS AND TRENDS

The purpose of this article is to study the topical issues of wealth taxation, which is due to the existing stable trends of growth of wealth of market subjects. Modern society is characterized by a marked increase in the wealth of individuals and corporations. Especially the number of wealthy individuals is growing. The aim of the paper is to define the essence of wealth and prerequisites of its taxation. The theme of the article is conditioned by the necessity to reveal different forms and methods of wealth taxation. At the same time the aim of the article is not to study wealth, but its taxation. In this connection the general system of taxes on wealth is considered and the peculiarities of functioning of different types of tax on wealth are determined. Methodology. A proper analysis of the social structure of society in the context of individual groups of taxpayers allows us to assess the effectiveness of the application of specific forms of wealth taxation. Results. The issue and modern specificity of the system of wealth taxes is explored. Wealth taxes exist in many countries in various forms. Practical implications. The peculiarities of application of different wealth taxes to different categories of taxpayers are investigated. The economic essence of taxes on wealth is investigated. The specifics of functioning of various taxes on wealth in modern conditions are considered. Value/originality. It has been established that taxation of wealth is a perfectly acceptable and even necessary form of fiscal influence of the state on society. A wealthy society is able to pay more taxes. This is important for the formation of state revenues. The economic potential of a large part of society is sufficient to pay a wealth tax. The peculiarities of functioning of different types of wealth tax for different taxpayers in different countries of the world are considered. The use of various taxes on wealth as a fiscal tool in the tax system of the state is proposed. Improvement of fiscal mechanisms of wealth taxation is recommended.